More tuition hikes sought for state universities

CSU

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, October 30, 2010

Students find their way around the campus at San Francisco State University, Monday August 23, 2010, preparing themselves for tomorrows first day of classes, in San Francisco, Calif.

Students find their way around the campus at San Francisco State University, Monday August 23, 2010, preparing themselves for tomorrows first day of classes, in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle

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Chancellor Charles Reed presides as California State University students, faculty and others protest budget cuts outside, at a meeting of the CSU trustees in Long Beach, Calif., Tuesday, July 21, 2009. California State University's governing board has voted to raise student fees by 20 percent as part of a budget plan that would also shrink enrollment and furlough most employees. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon) less

Chancellor Charles Reed presides as California State University students, faculty and others protest budget cuts outside, at a meeting of the CSU trustees in Long Beach, Calif., Tuesday, July 21, 2009. ... more

Photo: Reed Saxon, AP

More tuition hikes sought for state universities

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Yet again, the California State University trustees are poised to raise tuition - this time by 15.5 percent - when they meet in Long Beach two weeks from now.

Chancellor Charles Reed is recommending a midyear tuition increase of 5 percent for undergraduates, credential candidates and graduate students, and another 10 percent increase on top of that for fall 2011.

If approved, the current annual tuition of $4,230 for undergraduates would rise by $654 next fall to $4,884 - not including mandatory campus fees, which are $950 this year, or the cost of housing, books and meals.

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The midyear hike would raise the spring semester price tag to $2,220 for undergraduates, up from $2,115.

CSU has been steadily raising tuition for years, sometimes several times a year. The latest increases would be the fifth and sixth since 2007, when annual tuition was $2,520 - just under half the proposal for next fall. Most recently, the trustees raised tuition by 5 percent in June for the current year.

State university officials blame California's budget crisis, saying the new state budget gives the university $365 million less than it got in the 2007-08 school year.

It's not enough money, said Robert Turnage, CSU's assistant vice chancellor for budget, emphasizing that CSU does not want to repeat last year's disastrous austerity measures.

"Last year, we did not serve our students well - and everybody knows that," Turnage said, referring to the employee furloughs and elimination of courses across all 23 campuses. To save money, the university also closed its doors to all new midyear enrollments last spring.

"We were cutting corners everywhere. We did things that were not sustainable, and not adequately serving students," he said. "It was an awful situation all around, and everyone suffered."

The new tuition hikes would raise about $175 million a year for CSU.

Classes would be restored

In his recommendation, Reed said the money would restore about 3,000 courses cut last year, reduce class sizes, and expand services for the university system's nearly 340,000 students.

Low-income students would actually fare well under the plan because state and federal grants cover their tuition - if the students apply for them.

CSU estimates that just under half of all undergraduates don't pay tuition, thanks to Cal Grants, tuition waivers, State University Grants, federal Pell grants and newly expanded federal tax credits available to families with incomes as high as $180,000.

He said students had been expecting a 5 percent increase - not 15.5 percent. "Students aren't going to be happy about this," Chavez said, predicting that student protesters will show up at the trustees meeting on Nov. 9 and 10. "CSU is hurting students by doing this."

Dennis Alvarado, a business major at San Francisco State, called the proposed increases absurd.

"It's a public university, so there should be support from the state," he said. "It's absurd that they're making students pay more because they can't afford to support the university."

Reed's recommendation points out that even with the new tuition and mandatory campus fees, the cost of CSU would be lower than $8,682, the average tuition among 15 comparison universities chosen by the California Postsecondary Education Commission.

Other increases

If the trustees approve the increases, the new annual price for a credential - needed for such professions as teaching - would rise next fall to $5,670 from the current $4,909.

Graduate programs would rise to $6,018 from the current $5,214.

In his recommendation, Reed is also asking the trustees to agree to ask the state for a budget increase of nearly $379 million for the 2011-12 fiscal year.

That includes asking state lawmakers to spend $125 million to buy out the tuition increase. If they do, CSU would rescind its tuition increase, Turnage said.

At their November meeting, the trustees are also expected to officially retire the word "fee" when referring to student tuition to be consistent with other universities.

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